The cheapest way to improve a rail link from north to south would be to rebuild the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth rail linke and go up via the coast. After that, there's only a very short section of railway (currently used by one of the heritage railways) that's not part of the main network.

I don't know how long the travel times would be, but at least getting to Aberystwyth via Carmarthern must be quicker than going via Shrewsbury.

Fortunately, there are some ongoing studies about doing just that and it is something that the Welsh Government is keen on doing. Costs permitting of course.

Is clearly and obviously evident that when discussing Cardiff airport in terms of devolving APDgreater powers i.e. the puppet masters/lobbying groups of the Westminster politicians are playing a strong and covert hand in shaping Welsh policy.

Why is it that Wales hasn’t been able to devolve APD when Scotland and Northern Ireland have?

Could it be they are concerned that it would unleash Cardiff airport prospects and adversely affect nearby regional airport in England? Namely Bristol, Gloucester, Exeter Birmingham? Passengers would be inclined to travel to Cardiff to seek cheaper travel, more airlines would be inclined to set up shop at Cardiff? A win, win for Wales.

Cardiff has the potential in becoming a transatlantic hub, with the advantage of lengthier runway than Bristol.The devolution of APD is desperately needed.

>£500m for a new rail link on a route between Carmarthen and Aber that would have less demand than just one of the valley lines seems to me a very, very unlikely scenario. Plenty of much higher priority transport schemes with far better business cases?

Similarly talk of dedicated rail spurs to Cardiff Airport costing >£50M also fall into that category. We are struggling to secure further investment into Cardiff Central which handles >12MPax, Cardiff Airport barely handles 10% of that figure and only 10% of that demand would be rail based . So 1/100th of the rail demand at Cardiff Central. Which is more important to fund and which will have a better business case.

Jennifer wrote:Is clearly and obviously evident that when discussing Cardiff airport in terms of devolving APDgreater powers i.e. the puppet masters/lobbying groups of the Westminster politicians are playing a strong and covert hand in shaping Welsh policy.

Why is it that Wales hasn’t been able to devolve APD when Scotland and Northern Ireland have?

Could it be they are concerned that it would unleash Cardiff airport prospects and adversely affect nearby regional airport in England? Namely Bristol, Gloucester, Exeter Birmingham? Passengers would be inclined to travel to Cardiff to seek cheaper travel, more airlines would be inclined to set up shop at Cardiff? A win, win for Wales.

Cardiff has the potential in becoming a transatlantic hub, with the advantage of lengthier runway than Bristol.The devolution of APD is desperately needed.

I totally agree! Westminster is bending over backwards to please the Scots. Even Heathrow has entered into a £200M deal with the Scottish Government. What has Wales seen in Comparison?

Cardiff does have the capabality to be a major hub for Trans-Atlantic travel, especially with the planned electrification works on the Cardiff-London line. So what's the problem?

The only reason why APD is not being devolved to Wales is because the know it will kick off Cardiff airport in a big way and to the detriment of Bristol. There are a lot of Conservative seats in the South West, including Liam Fox's seat of North Sommerset. Funnily enough, that's where Bristol Airport is!

Bishop84 wrote:IMHO investment in a better North-South rail service would be a better return than this vanity air route. Wasn't the subsidy running at something around £50-£75 per passenger on this air route?

It would take at least 250 years' worth of airline subsidy to rebuild the Carmarthen-Aberystwyth rail line. Which I very much hope happens, I hasten to add.

Peiriannydd wrote:The only reason why APD is not being devolved to Wales is because the know it will kick off Cardiff airport in a big way and to the detriment of Bristol. There are a lot of Conservative seats in the South West, including Liam Fox's seat of North Sommerset. Funnily enough, that's where Bristol Airport is!

I believe Alun Cairns has been absolutely open and up-front that the reason APD was not devolved in the Wales Act was because it would damage Bristol Airport. Which is a curious position for the Welsh Secretary to take, you would think.

Peiriannydd wrote:The only reason why APD is not being devolved to Wales is because the know it will kick off Cardiff airport in a big way and to the detriment of Bristol. There are a lot of Conservative seats in the South West, including Liam Fox's seat of North Sommerset. Funnily enough, that's where Bristol Airport is!

I believe Alun Cairns has been absolutely open and up-front that the reason APD was not devolved in the Wales Act was because it would damage Bristol Airport. Which is a curious position for the Welsh Secretary to take, you would think.

Even funnier when he's the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan. Liam Fox obviously has more clout in the Cabinet. Either that, or it's clear for everyone to see that Westminster will protect English interests at the expense of Wales.

I recall Cairns tried to justify it by suggesting the Belfast's airport doesn't compete with those on the mainland. Similarly, Glasgow and Edinburgh are miles from those in the north of England. So much for competition and free trade!

Most English airports were opposed. Northern Ireland does share the border with The Republic, which scrapped APD, and is on another land mass. Scotland's case is a bit iffy but it is geographically much further and less integrated with England. If the English regions had more autonomy it'd be no different than say The West Midlands trying to get rid of APD, to the detriment of the NW, Yorkshire, or East Midlands.

Cardiff Airport is already owned by the Welsh state, which comes with it's own set of legal issues when scrapping APD; although we're leaving the EU now so maybe it won't be such a big deal. Either way that's not exactly fair competition nor free trade for either camp in England or Wales.

Who knows, If the brexit talks all go tits up and Britain ends up getting turned into a low tax haven, then perhaps they might abolish APD for every airport.

Cardiff does have the capabality to be a major hub for Trans-Atlantic travel, especially with the planned electrification works on the Cardiff-London line. So what's the problem?

You are living in cloud cuckoo land if you really still believe this, what do you want subsidised flights to NYC

Money would be better spent getting the electrification back on track, then sort out the low speed sections on lines to the west of Bristol Parkway. I measured the journey speeds from London to Cardiff via a GPS tracker, with no apparent speed restrictions.London to Reading max speed 110mph good speed consistencyas was Reading to Swindon and Swindon to Parkway all done in 1hr 20minsThen Parkway to Newport max speed 80mph, much lower in the tunnelNewport to Cardiff max speed 90mph but both the Welsh sections has very slow acceleration and deceleration, points? Track? who knows.Was surprised no where did the train get to 125mph, the new hybrid rolling stock will be even slower, but eh ho what's £5bn between friends, when the aim of electrification was to speed up journeys.

Sort out the M4 and then use Welsh money to upgrade the A49 pinch points in England.

As UKIP say, North Wales has far more in common with the North West than Cardiff, so spend money to improve the real lives of people, not just AMs

Cardiff does have the capabality to be a major hub for Trans-Atlantic travel, especially with the planned electrification works on the Cardiff-London line. So what's the problem?

You are living in cloud cuckoo land if you really still believe this, what do you want subsidised flights to NYC

Yeah, the best options is to spend billions buiding a 3rd runway for Heathrow that nobody really wants (not even half of the Conservative MPs) and would bring pollutions levels above acceptable levels.

There's no reason why Cardiff can't be used as a spill-over airport, there's been several Government reports that have looked at this. It could work for not only a large amount of passenger flights (especially for those from Wales, South West, West Country) but also a large amount of air freight.

There could be 5 major hubs for the UK: Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff. Given today's news, we can probably forget about Glasgow!